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There were strong rumors in the industry that you want to do only solo-hero projects after the accolades for “Dev D’ and was having second thoughts on doing Zoya Akhtar’s film with Farhan Akhtar and Hrithik Roshan.
From my first film “Socha Na Tha’ to “Dev D’ most of the films that I’ve been doing so far have offered me a chance to be on my own. Why not use the cinema space to create your own rhythm and pace when you are getting the opportunity? Having said that, I'd be foolish to turn down something like Zoya’s film. It does have three heroes, yes. But all of us have strong interesting and equal roles. That’s why I agreed to do the film.

You were seen as the face of ‘new cinema’ in Bollywood, working mostly with debutant directors. How does your role add so much value to a film?
I choose roles after reading the scripts. My first five directors were debutants and I hadn’t seen any of their work to judge them. I’d liked their scripts they obviously had a certain vision. Manorama was different because Navdeep and I knew each other for years. You may not know what they can do, but you have faith.

Actors like Ajay Devgn and Aamir Khan claim that many of their movies turned out to be different from the scripts. Does that disconnect happen a lot?
After my first few films didn’t work, nobody offered me any big budget films. So I did high-content, low-budget films. It’s easy to be different in our industry… Just remove the songs and dances. Some actors started off with regular Bollywood stuff and suddenly tried serious roles for balance. I think they should be proud of what they do, why experiment? Today, directors will forgive me if I refuse to do commercial films because they know I’ve stuck to my guns.

A lot of things are not in your control, but you are the face of the film. Does it put a pressure on you as an actor?
You are the face, but the director is the boss. I won’t work with a director until I’m comfortable, because I will be taking their guidance. It’s blind trust because the director is the one shaping the movie.

Were you a huge film buff yourself while growing up?
I wouldn’t say that, but I was exposed to films more by chance. Sunny bhaiyya (Deol) had a huge LD collection and then before people started buying LDs, he already had DVDs. Obviously as a kid, I was intrigued by action films like Indiana Jones, Star Wars...

You’d also be watching Sunny Deol action films, right?
Yeah, a lot of them were action films. I liked the escapism, and action was better escapism than romance. Action in Hindi films was always inferior to Hollywood.

So why did you decide to debut with something like Socha Na Tha (a romance)?
I decided to conform and do a song and dance movie to enter the industry. I needed to prove myself first before I could start asking for changes. Socha Na Tha was a safe romcom. Even distributors are willing to go that extra mile because it has a wider audience.

Since you’ve grown up hating the star system, do you hate your own star status after Dev D?
I don’t hate anything. I’m happy that my film did well; it gave me freedom and opportunities. But every interview was always about alternative cinema. Since my film did well, I didn’t feel the need to give too many interviews. Seeing stardom since childhood made it less attractive to me. The interviews, the gossip, the rumours… nothing shocks me.

You don’t believe in the myth of stardom. You’re probably the first to come for an interview driving your own car...
I’ll tell you how that happened. I left early, so I was here sooner than planned and my mom took the driver. I don’t use a driver unless I have to go for shoots. I’ve seen the pressure of stardom. You maybe surrounded by people who aren’t your friends. You can never have a private life and you have to justify your actions because you’re always going to be judged.